The Regional Express Holdings Ltd (ASX: REX) share price is flying higher today following the company's latest trading update.
At the time of writing, the regional airline operator's shares are soaring 6.02% to $1.41.
This trump shares in rival Qantas Airways Limited (ASX: QAN) which is heading the other way, down 1.51% to $4.57.
Let's take a look at how Regional Express is performing lately.
Regional Express kicks off FY23 with record results
A robust start to the new financial year is steering investors to bid up the Regional Express share price this afternoon.
In its release, Regional Express advised it has achieved record passenger numbers and revenue across its entire network for the first month of FY23.
On the domestic front, the company's July pre-audited base passenger revenue came to $13.6 million. This is almost double the monthly average of $6.87 million from the prior three months. The load factor stood at 86% across the domestic network.
Looking at the regional division, Regional Express stated that July's revenue and passenger numbers were almost identical to July 2019. Between the two comparative periods, there was around a 4% reduction from last month.
Despite the small cut, revenue per flight and the passenger load factor both increased by 8% and 7%, respectively.
What did Regional Express comment with?
Regional Express executive chair, Lim Kim Hai upped the ante with its war against Qantas, saying:
Our great performance in the regional markets also validates our decision to stand our ground against Qantas, which flooded the market on marginal regional routes in an attempt to destabilise us. Not only did their plan not succeed, but we are now having record passengers and revenues on our regional network by concentrating on the larger regional routes in direct competition with them.
Later this month we will commence servicing Melbourne-Devonport, breaking QantasLink's monopoly on the route for the last 17 years and we intend to fly to other regional cities that are currently monopolised by QantasLink.
Hai went on to further add:
Our unparalleled reliability has resulted in many new passengers on top of the corporate and travel agency ones, and, barring further external shocks, has led us to believe that both our domestic and regional operations will be profitable this FY. This is quite a feat, considering that we only properly restarted domestic operations in February this year.
…Rex is the only airline in Australia, and perhaps only one of five in the world that has not made an operational loss since 2003 up to COVID. Our best-of-class operations are without dispute. With such financial and operational prowess, we look confidently ahead in this FY as we turn the corner on these devastating COVID years.
Regional Express share price snapshot
Since the beginning of 2022, the Regional Express share price has moved in circles to post a loss of 2%.
Its shares hit a 52-week low of $1.005 on 20 June after investors headed for the exits after global markets tanked.
Nonetheless, Regional Express shares are making a stunning recovery – up more than 40% for the past 6 weeks.
Based on today's price, the company commands a market capitalisation of approximately $135.49 million.
